An internet casino in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho in Tokyo has been raided and seven individuals, including the business owner and customers, arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department.
According to reports, the premises was operating 24 hours a day during Japan’s recent state of emergency, which saw business across the country, including pachinko parlors, closed down.
The arrests were made on 8 July on suspicion the group had allowed customers to access overseas online casino sites using computers on premises. All have admitted to the charges.
The store, operating since May, had issued around 800 member cards and made estimated sales of approximately JPY150 million (US$1.4 million) over a period of two months.
A number of illegal casinos have been discovered across Japan in recent times, many of them operating throughout the nation’s COVID-19 emergency declaration and breaching social distancing measures.
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